New Hybrid Gold for Interesting Application

(ETH Zurich, June 18, 2013)

Raffaele Mezzenga, a professor of food and soft materials at ETH Zurich and his team have created an unusual hybrid material which is a wafer-thin, paper-like mixture of graphene and protein fibres which look like a gold leaf. Researchers made the fibres by stretching them naturally from milk globular proteins, the so-called beta-lactoglobulin, and with the aid of heat and acid. The researchers added gold in the form of a salt to the acidic solution of the fibres. The gold grows as a so-called monocrystal and the gold ions form a crystal lattice completely devoid of any defects. Mezzenga sees an initial application in gastronomy, allowing use as an additive in foods because the new hybrid material is made of gold and dietary proteins. The hybrid material could also be used for acidity measurements in sensors. The “paper” is conductive depending on its composition giving it a possible application in microelectronics.